if the answer is as simple as bad translators, then u guys (meaning the egyptians) should take over the job because u r very good at translating arabic to english and vice versa:)
2007-01-29 10:29:38 · 13 answers · asked by Daraweesh rocks!=) aka Shankooty 3 in Travel ➔ Africa & Middle East ➔ Egypt
sweetboba, i think that u misunderstood my question sis. i was talking about arabic, not spanish. anyway, i know that some of them are wrong because i know what they r saying and i read it at the bottom and its really different. my lil bro gets soo confused because of this
2007-01-29 10:39:36 · update #1
Arabic is sublime and complex language with subtle meanings and concepts embedded within the language itself and some of it cannot be translated into English in any meanful way, and visa versa. Some English words and concepts don't translate well back.
The translators often end up doing the closest (although often still incorrect) match.
This is part of the reason the Koran is not widely available in English. You lose all the beauty and charm of it when translation to English is attempted.
2007-01-29 10:34:27 · answer #1 · answered by darklydrawl 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
This is not strictly a trait of Arabic films, but it is common in films of all foreign languages and it has to do with expediency. Considering the fact that many people are not able to read in a speedy manner, scenes that contain lengthy dialogue are often exhibited with cut down dialogue in the subtitles, so that enough of the discussion can be explained to the audience, but not overlap other dialogue or cuts. It's a rather difficult chore for the post production editors to transcribe the most important parts of a line for the sub-titles, as it often involves eliminating several words and substituting others that have the same, but shorter meaning on the screen. Try as they may, the translation of the language into English (and vice-versa) may sometimes be off.
2007-01-29 10:39:20 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Arabic and English are two very different languages. It is very hard to translate some English slangs to Arabic and vice versa. I personally have seen both good and bad subtitles. Some are very accurate and some are way off. I have thought about getting a job as a translator, but my problem is there are many words in English that I know the meaning of them only in English and do not know what the Arabic words for them are. I hope people in charge would give such a duty to qualified people only as such translations are technically seen by millions of people
2007-01-29 19:22:51 · answer #3 · answered by Ruby 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Tell me about. I would love to have a job in making the subtitles , but I don't know how.
Anyways, to be fair, sometimes the translators deliberately change the meaning. Because alot of bad words that are used in English, can't be used in Arabic. An example to that is the word "sh.it". They translate it as "damn". Because u can;t say **** in Arabic.
Another reason would be the idioms. If u literaly translate "something that came out of the blue" nobody would understand what u r talking abt.That's why sometimes they just have to change the meaning.
Addition:
Oh.. oops I just realized u were talking abt Arabic to English not vice versa...My bad. I have never watched any Arabic movies translated to English though. My bad.
But you know what ? The previous applies to this too.In addition to the fact that Arabs speak quickly and talk alot in their movies. True. We talk alot. So when the man is translating from Arabic to English, he has to summarize , otherwise , the subtitles would be moving so quickly. Too quickly for people to read. I know that because I tried to translate a short part of an Arabic movie.
2007-01-29 11:48:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
Arabic is a very complex language. It has it own beauty, but it's also hard to translate. So many words that have the same meaning in arabic could just have one equivalent word in English. Some arabic words don't have their equivalence in English. So it's hard to translate movies, plays, etc word for word b/c there wouldn't be sufficient English words to convey the meaning. Also remember that in such movies, the arabic slang dominates, and it's very difficult to translate slang. The meaning would truly be lost in translation. So it's not the matter of people doing a bad job at translating, it's just the difficulty of the language!
2007-01-29 15:55:41 · answer #5 · answered by fldrod 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Run Lola Run, Set against the gritty urban scenescape of Berlin and a pounding techno soundtrack, RUN LOLA RUN is a frenetic, inventive existential thriller that explores the life-altering impact of seemingly inconsequential actions.great film with cracking sound track also just watched "The Lives of Others", set in East Berlin, 1984. State Security begins surveillance on playwright and, on the surface at least, good socialist Georg Dreyman (Koch). But as the operation progresses, Stasi Captain Wiesler (Mühe) discovers compassion in his stony soul. You could also have a look at love films website as they have a foreign film catagory you can search in
2016-03-29 08:45:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
because the arabic language is put in a different way than english. The subject and verb are not always in the beginning like english so its hard to make the subtitles quickly.
2007-01-29 10:34:26 · answer #7 · answered by smitg10 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Hi Mariam,
I am with you. What a waste of a rich culture.
Egypt has many good movies that deserve to be understood by other cultures.
I love the humor in some movies. I think this is the Ministry of Culture's responsibility to translate Egyptian movies to other languages.
I have a faith in Egyptians that if they are up to it, they can do it.
2007-01-30 05:50:52 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It all depens what English you want.
The bloody King's English or regular AMerican "English"
when they threw that tea into the harbor it was clear, they were NOT proper English people, that was the beginning of the end I think
no more pinky raised in quiet subtle dignity, it was more like drunkin rampages with pitch forks
2007-01-29 10:35:00 · answer #9 · answered by kurticus1024 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
um, this isn't only a problem with arabic films...the problem is that there are only so many people in a given field who take pride in their work, and in a field like translation, it's very few.
2007-01-29 10:32:09 · answer #10 · answered by cadillacrazy 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋